Keeping Track of... Gwyn Coogan

By Alison Wade

Above: Gwyn Coogan competes at the 1999 USA Track & Field Championships. Both Photos: Victah@Photo Run

GWYN COOGAN LINKS: USATF Bio Brief Chats from Runner's World Online: February 2000 | January 1998 | May 1999 | February 1997 Mathematician's passions runs from marathons to mountains (9/01) Coogan's web site

Despite not taking up running until college, Gwyn Coogan made up for lost time by winning two NCAA Division III track titles by the time she graduated. Five years later, she qualified for the 1992 Olympic team at 10,000m. She just missed making her second Olympic team in 1996 when she finished fourth in the marathon at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Coogan leads a full life outside of running, she has three children and earned Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Colorado in 1999. She and her husband, elite runner and Olympian Mark Coogan, currently reside in Madison, Wisconsin where Gwyn was doing postdoctoral work. Coogan, now 36, holds personal bests of 32:08.77 (set in 1994) and 2:32:50 (set in 1995).

Fast-Women.com: We heard that you're moving back to New England, is that true?
Gwyn Coogan: We're moving to Exeter, New Hampshire in a couple weeks... I'm going to be teaching [math] at a prep school there.

FW: At Phillips Exeter? That's where you went, right?
GC: Yes. I went there for two years, I went to George School (in Pennsylvania) for two years also.

FW: And have they recruited you to coach yet?
GC: I will be coaching, everybody coaches a couple of seasons a year. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing. They have very competent cross country and track coaches now, although I may help out with the team, but not be the head coach.

FW: It would seem crazy for you to be the basketball coach with your running background.
GC: Right, but who knows, it might happen.

FW: What does this mean in terms of your career, what kind of work were you doing in Madison?
GC: I'm on a post doc. here, a math research position. I'm not sure exactly what this means in terms of my career. I'd still like to do research, but I'm not sure how it's going to fit in to the teaching regimen. There's no research required of an Exeter Academy professor, but I hope to keep it up to some extent because I enjoy it.

FW: We heard that you had another child this year.
GC: I did! His name is William and he'll be nine weeks old tomorrow.

FW: What's it like having three kids now?
GC: It's definitely a family. Yup, we're definitely a family now. (William has two big sisters, Katrina, 8, and Margaret, 3.)

FW: Are the kids excited about moving to New Hampshire?
GC: I think so. [Katrina] has a great setup here, she adjusted really well, we've only been here two years, she made some great friends and she really likes her school and her team. It's going to be an adjustment for her but she's looking forward to meeting new people and trying new things.

FW: Do you have running partners set up for when you move to New Hampshire, or is it going to be a bit tougher than living in Madison?
GC: We'll have to find running partners, we're only 50 minutes from Boston and Boston has a great running community. For me, having a full-time job and three kids, it's questionable how much running I'll be able to do. Although I still want to run as hard as I can, and I don't know what that means. Does that mean I'll run 30 miles a week and that's "as hard as I can" or does it mean I'll run 70 miles a week... I don't know. But I'd still like to pursue it as much as I can. And I have summers off so there's a chance for a good training block there.

FW: What has your training been like for the past couple years? Have you trained seriously at all?
GC: Well I had foot surgery in 2000, and it took me about a year to get back from that and feel like I was getting into shape again. And then I got pregnant. So basically I've been making this baby for the last year, and we'll see what happens now... I haven't raced for two years so it seems kind of questionable, but it's just been a combination of circumstances. And I suppose any runner will tell you that. It's just all of the sudden, life takes over and they stop racing. Maybe that's the way it really happens, I don't know.

FW: Was the 2000 Olympic Marathon Trials your last competition?
GC: Pretty much. I ran some smaller races last summer... One was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and one was in Chicago... I ran pretty slow times but they were the beginning (laughs)...

FW: Do you still have ambitions of setting PRs someday?
GC: I think the only place I could set a PR is in the marathon. That one's still open, I think.

FW: We read that you haven't run very many marathons.
GC: I've only run three. Well, I've only competed three marathons. I had to drop out of the [2000 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials] with my broken foot.

FW: And yet everyone thinks of you as a marathoner.
GC: Isn't that funny?

FW: You've still got a few years before masters running is an option, is that something that appeals to you?
GC: In the past, masters running has never seemed like an option to me. I think, if I were to run races after I'm 40, I'll think of myself as an open runner. But who knows. I don't see myself as having a masters career, like, for instance, (thinks for a while) Judi St. Hilaire.

FW: You didn't take up running until pretty late in life. Had it never occured to you before that you might be good at it?
GC: I didn't start running until college. I was doing other sports and it didn't occur to me before that I might be good at it.

FW: When you did start running, were you immediately good?
GC: I still don't think I'm good (laughs), so that's really a funny question.

FW: Were you winning national championships right away?
GC: It took me a year or two.

FW: Can you talk about what attracted you to math?
GC: The summer between high school and college I was trying to decide what I should major in. I decided to major in physics because I was interested in the subject, but also I thought that it would be a great opportunity, to learn physics in college. There were other things I could learn outside of college, there are other things that people will discuss with you, like a book, or history, or religion. You can basically discuss those with a lot of people. But physics is something, I thought, it would be great to have specialists teach me. And so I decided to major in physics. While I was taking the physics, I realized it was really the math I was studying to support the physics that I was interested in. So I decided to be a math major. I liked it, and I knew when I graduated that I wanted to keep studying it and keep learning it. And basically that's been the motivating factor all along, I just want to keep learning more and I want to keep studying it.

FW: Did you go straight into graduate school?
GC: I didn't. I worked for a high-tech firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts for four years or so.

FW: Did you ever run full time?
GC: No, I've never run full time.

FW: Has running full time ever appealed to you?
GC: No. I never wanted to do it.

FW: Did you ever wonder what you could have accomplished running full time, or do you think it helped to be doing other things?
GC: I think that the best runners run full time. I think if I wanted to be the best possible runner, I should have run full time. But I also had other things that I felt like doing... I guess wanting to do other things was more compelling than being a better runner. That sounds awful (laughs).

FW: You said you don't consider yourself to be a good runner, why is that?
GC: I guess... I still haven't met all my goals.

FW: Do you have any advice for anyone who's trying to balance motherhood, work and running?
GC: I guess my biggest piece of advice is make sure that you enjoy everything you're doing. If you stop enjoying something, then it's never going to work. If you're trying to do a lot of things and there's one of those things that you don't enjoy, then it's not going to work. You have to enjoy everything that you're doing.

FW: We realize you just had a baby nine weeks ago, but do you plan on trying any races anytime soon?
GC: Well this weekend, here in Madison, there's a mile race... I really want to run the citizens' race. I want to see how fast I can run a mile right now, so I might do that race. (Editor's note: She did not turn up in the results.)

FW: Does competition scare you at all when you're not sure of how fit you are?
GC: Competition definitely scares me. And actually, I think I'm more scared when I'm in shape because then I have an idea of what I want to do. If I'm not in shape, I figure I'll be in better shape at the end of the race than I was in the beginning. So that's always a positive. But it's when I'm in shape and I care that I get more nervous.

(Interview conducted July 19, 2002, posted July 23, 2002.)